Ortiz fight off after ex-welterweight champ charged with rape
FILE – Victor Ortiz avoids a punch by Andre Berto during a welterweight fight at StubHub Center on April 30, 2016 in Carson, California. Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images/AFP
Former welterweight world champion Victor Ortiz, arrested on suspicion of rape on Tuesday in Oxnard, California, won’t fight as scheduled on Sunday according to an Instagram post from intended opponent John Molina Jr.
Ortiz turned himself in on Tuesday after authorities filed a felony complaint against him alleging rape during a March 19 incident in which a woman told Oxnard police she was sexually assaulted inside a house.
Ventura County prosecutors said Ortiz was due to appear in Ventura County Superior Court on October 1 to be arraigned on multiple charges related to the incident.
READ: Former WBC welterweight champ Victor Ortiz charged with rape
His release on bail had seemed to leave open the possibility he would still fight on Sunday’s Premier Boxing Champions card in Ontario, California, but Molina posted the bout was off.
“Sorry to all my friends, family and fans,” Molina posted on Instagram. “I was more than ready for this fight … I’ll be in the ring soon and I’ll be in the house Sunday.”
Premier Boxing Champions said that a 10-round featherweight bout between Brandon Figueroa and Oscar Escandon would be the main event of the card which also features 2016 Nigerian Olympian Efe Ajagba.
Ortiz, 31, was the World Boxing Council welterweight world champion thanks to a bruising victory over Andre Berto when he took on challenger Floyd Mayweather in September of 2011.
Mayweather emerged with a controversial fourth-round knockout, stunning an apparently unprepared Ortiz with a barrage of blows after referee Joe Cortez had briefly stopped the bout to dock Ortiz a point for an intentional head butt.
Ortiz, who has also appeared on the television reality sow “Dancing with the Stars” and in the movie “The Expendables 3,” has three wins, three defeats and one draw in the ring since then.
